Location data from a mobile device can be used for numerous applications. There are applications that use the location data for locating friends, playing games, and assisting a user with directions. The location data can also be used to alert a user when the user and the user's device are in the vicinity of a hotspot. A hotspot is any business, institution, or location that would be of interest to a user. For example, a user may choose to be alerted every time the user nears a particular store or restaurant, or the server may identify a hotspot as a nearby store that the user frequents and that is currently offering a promotion or coupon.
Unfortunately, hotspot information is constantly changing. New stores are built, promotions are updated, and the user location changes. A user may desire constantly updated hotspot information, but the mobile devices are not typically capable of maintaining a database of all the hotspots and hotspot marketing data. Trying to maintain this data may have an adverse effect on the data storage capacity of the device, the battery life of the device, the required data transmission capacity, or other aspects of operating a mobile device.
Conversely, tracking the location of the user device by the server and continually providing updates with hotspot data as the mobile device changes locations also adversely affects the battery, storage capacity, and data transmission capacity of the device.
Thus, a need in the art exists for systems and methods that improve upon one or more of the above-described limitations.